Leaving for Normal
by Tears of Trees
Summary: Five years ago, the Titans left each other. Now they all lead different lives. Finally, after all these years, Raven has what she wanted. But now, the Titans meet again, and they don't fit easily into Raven's new life. Hiatus.
1. Bye

Five adults stood around in a circle, each one so different form the other, all of the unique

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans. **

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Five adults stood around in a circle, each one so different form the other, yet, all of them unique. No one was saying anything, just relishing the last few moment of each other's company. They would be leaving soon, gone within the hour.

"So this is it. . .?" the voice didn't hold the type of commanding power that it normally did, it was uncertain, trailing off at the end. The words came from the mouth of a boy about 22 now. His clothing red, green, and yellow. A traffic light some liked to say, and people where right. Traffic lights stop accidents from happening, they stop people from getting hurt. Yet some do go through them, but they are always brought around. He was the leader of the group, a traffic light, telling them all when it was safe to move, and keeping personalities from clashing, though sometimes they ran a traffic light. The leader looked around at each member of his group, pardon me, what had been his group.

"Yet we will always remain the B of Fs, correct?" The voice was innocent, slightly hopeful, and naive, but not as naive as it once had been before. She had come from another planet, one well outside our solar system. Her bright red hair hung down, her dainty little feet stayed on the ground. This wasn't a happy time for her; it was no time of joyfulness. She was 21 now, but still slipped up her words, when she was down, or too excited. She was dubbed by almost everyone, the peacebringer, by a twist of fate. For when she had first come to this planet, she had fought them all, but really turned out to be gentle, keeping them all together.

"Well, best friends for most of us. Now Bird Brain is a different type of BF for you," the voice came out rather squeaky and high pitched, but not quite as it had once been when he had first joined the team. His choice of words where suppose to be funny, and under normal circumstances, he might of gotten a few laughs for his effort, maybe even a blushing traffic light. But no one laughed, they didn't even look at amused. It was his role in the team, well not a team now, to be the comic relief person. It was an unsaid thing that they took for granted from the 20 year old. Yet he wasn't really that funny at all, well only when he wasn't trying to be was he funny.

"Dude, this ain't the time for jokes," the statement came out rather harsh for the metal man, but then this was a hard time for him. He had always been the big brother to everyone. Looking out for the group making sure that nothing happened to his adopted siblings. He was the oldest in the group, now 24, and fit the part that he had played for the team quite nicely. He had always known what to say, when to say it, to make everyone relax, but at this point he couldn't think of anything that would make the room untense.

"Bye," the one word sentence broke through everyone's little remises of the memories. It was spoken in monotone, devoured of all emotion. The word its self was so simple and straight forward, no hidden messages, no double edge, like it normally would from the empathy in the dark blue cloak. She was the dark one, the mysterious one, the sarcastic one. Some how she was the one who could always keep a level head, and bring things back to the main point, even if other people wanted to go off down a different path. A talent that wasn't always appreciated. The 19 year old looked around quickly at her four friends. She knew despite what her innocent friend had said, they wouldn't be able to remain BFs. Closing her eyes on her friends for what she figured would be the last time, she found her shadow, resting inside her peacefully. Twisting it around herself, like a child would wrap its self in their favorite blanket, she sank through the floor, leaving the room, the tower forever.

The others looked silently at where she had been, only moments before, a small bye on everyone's lips. The peacebringer of the group somehow found a joy that was enough to send her flying with happiness. She waved goodbye to her friends in the retreating tower behind her. The memory of the five of them together, kept her aloft, kept her going.

The traffic light waved goodbye to his two friends that where left. They waved half heartily back.

The two people left in the room watched their former leader leave the room. The grass stain turned to look out the window. The sun was ending its setting over the city. It was slightly ironic to him, they where leaving when the sun was disappearing. The changling jumped a little when a metallic hand was placed on his green shoulder, startling him out of his thoughts.

"You're never going to see her again, you need to move on." It was probably the last piece of brotherly advice that the cyborg would give to his friend.

His friend just nodded, moving away from the comforting hand, he walked closer to the big window that spanned across the room. "It isn't easy you know." he paused for a second, glancing back at his half human- half machine friend, "Moving on that is."

The cyborg nodded, "I know." The grass-stain morphed into an eagle and soared away, the air lifting him up into the heavens. The last remaining member looked around at all the rooms, to lock them up. They where all clean, stripped of anything that would ever say that their owners would come back. The half man half machine, left. The tower was locked up, no one could get in, except the original five Teen Titans. He didn't believe that any of his friends would come back. But he left it open for them, just in case. But they where gone, they had all left to go their separate ways. The original Teen Titans where gone, off to live normal lives that had been taken from them for whatever reasons.

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	2. Aureus Solis

**Diclamier: I don't own Teen Titans.**

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The sun hadn't even peeked over the horizon at five in the morning, but a fairytale feeling café was already open and packed. A little stone pathway cut through a neatly gardened lawn, complete with flowers and a few climbing plants, to the front door with simple white door. Windows framed each side of the door. Their wooden frames, well wood colored, set nicely into the stone walls. The door opened with a comforting creaking sound, however that was managed.

The walls on your right where painted a nice cream color, flowers painted on the top border. As you looked to your left, the light creamy colored walls faded to a darker shade of paint, giving it more of a musty bookstore smell. Which went quite nicely with the little bookstore that it had. A few shelves, well maybe a more than a few shelves, lined the walls. In the very center of the books, was an area, set with a few comfy chairs, positioned so you could look out the windows, but still be connected to the little center area of the book part of the café.

Back around to the other side, muffin type, upon muffin type line the walls behind two cash registers. In between each muffin section, there was a section for tea. Almost ever single kind you could think of, the normal type, Earl Grey, to exotic types like Banana-Strawberry. Combined, the two were quite nice in the morning. The whole back of the café was lined with windows, except for the part that a door was placed. White tables and chairs where lined up against the window and in the space inside the café. Outside you would be face with even more chairs and tables.

The best part about the whole store wasn't the food, the tea, or the books. It was the view. It was absolutely gorgeous, the best view in the whole city. It wasn't like it looked at a modern skyline. No it was that it looked out over the rising sun, over the ocean that the sun rose so beautifully, the reflection blending so wonderfully with the water. It was so natural, the only place in Jump City, that you could see just nature, or almost all nature. Off to the far left when you look out of a window in the café, you could see the legendry 'T' shaped tower, that had once been home to the legendry, original Teen Titans, before it had been abandoned five years ago. And it was that, combined with the view, combined with the fairy tale feel, combined with the muffins, combined with the hand picked books for the mini book store, combined with the tea, that made this little café so successful.

The whole place was packed ever since five, and people kept coming in. Soon the café would be over packed like it always was these days. Sighing the co-founder and owner of the café glanced around. She did miss the days when it was only a few people who came in this early to the café. It was always so peaceful then. She use to able to sit and watch the sun rise with the other people, but now. . . Now she was kept busy. She pulled the tea kettle off the stove in the back, and poured three cups of Honey Drops. It had somehow become a favorite, though she just couldn't see how anything could replace a good old cup of earl grey. But then two months ago the favorite had been Cinnamon Hearts, during February, especially around Valentines Day. The favorite would soon change, no one needed to be a physic to know that.

Putting the three cups on a tray she brought it out to the front. "Honey Drops," The co-owner shouted out, her voice carrying over the crowd, somehow. She saw three hands shoot up. She walked over to each one looking at their receipt before handing them the cup. She noticed that a regular from the beginning had ordered one. So she had done the others two cups before walking over.

"Good morning Jasmine. Honey Drops? Strange choice for you, normally you're an Earl Grey person. Found a boy yet?" The blonde, with her hair, with graying ends, swept up into a bun, gave Rachel a look.

"What do you think Rachel? I already told you I mean to grow old and die with only my love of books, and the wonderful Latin language. I just needed something to spice up my day. By the way, Aureus Solis, wonderful name for a café, I must say." Rachel chuckled a little under her breath. She understood her motive, but Jasmine really did need a boy, she wasn't just going to let the subject drop. Placing the cup on Jasmine's table, that she had somehow managed to get in the crowed cafe, Rachel tucked the tray under her arm.

"Anyone here catch your eye?" Rachel figured she could chat for a moment or two. The thirty year old just gave her another look, and went back to drinking her Honey Drop, before deciding it needed sugar. Smiling, Rachel made her way back to the front, noticing that a few children had waken up a first light, like their parents, and were stopping here on their way to daycare.

She grabbed the paper hanging off the window that connected the backroom to the area with the cash registers. She started to fill out the tea order. You could just get the muffins off the shelf, but it took a while for the tea, it just wasn't the same when you got it pre-made.

The people kept coming and coming, and the second shift of the employers came in, and Rachel kept working. Chatting here and there a little with the regulars. Talking to people about their vacation. Sharing advice to those who need it. Everyone was talking to everyone else. Despite that they were some stranger that came from out of town on business, or vacation. Sharing tables laughing, chatting. The whole place had this feeling where you could just relax. The people started to whisper, as if an order was issued out, when the sun started to rise. They watched as the rosy sun rose, turning the sky from hues of blues to glistening reds and yellows, reflecting off the surface of the water. Some new comers flashed cameras at the sky, capturing the silhouettes of the clouds. Others aimed to the calm sea, snapping pictures that would come out looking like a painted water color. Teas were called out over the group, and the buyers continued to raise their hands for their orders.

At around nine o'clock Rachel finally stopped giving out orders, and just started to walk around, talking to various people. Some one was arguing over to her right outside. Walking out the doors, Rachel walked over, she didn't really have arguments in her café, and no one really was mad here. She couldn't think of anything, her mind only halfway on it, that they could argue over in her café. She saw one of her workers, Sasha, walk over a hand was raised in the center of the group for Banana- Strawberry. Then a slap was heard over the noise. Everyone stopped talking. Sasha was clutching her cheek, her eyes wide.

A pale hand was upraised, which belonged to a woman of about thirty. Her cheek bones highly raised on her thin face. Rachel was walking rather quickly and with an air that had turned suddenly from open and inviting, to menacing and forbidding. The people, who had been standing up and talking to each other, moved out of the pathway that the brown headed co-owner was taking.

Rachel came up silently behind the woman and said, with ever bit of sickly pleasantness, that only people who have worked with the law could do, said, "Is there a problem over here?"

The woman turned around, her black hair flying around her face. Her eyes opened wide for a second, she really wasn't ready to be faced with the owner of Aureus Solis, that is able to bring people out at five o'clock in the morning, just to get a cup of tea. "Yes, there is," the lady then stopped talking, as if she was trying to organize her thoughts, that would, hopefully, sooth the co-owner. Both eyes were raised, dark blue eyes matching startling green.

"So what problem is then?" Rachel's voice was ever inch false, the smile that she had plastered on her face, not even scrapping the edges of her eyes.

The woman had apparently gathered her thoughts, as she voiced them, with the same type of false peasantry that the owner was able to exhibit, but with less result, "I received a cup of tea that wasn't warm."

Rachel just looked at her, "So, you hit one of my employees? One who didn't even give you the tea?" Rachel was quickly losing her patients, which was apparent to everyone who was around her.

"Well I think that she very well deserved it! She-"

The woman was cut off when Rachel's voice cut through hers, "She is, under my protection when she is employed to me, and I decide which punishment will be adequate for her, for all of my employee's."

"Well apparently you are unable to discipline your employees very well." Their voices had both resulted to cold, and hard, the ugly pleasantry gone. The older woman stared into Rachel's dark blue eyes, which flashed once, to a hell filled red. Then she blinked and they where replaced with their normal color, not quite sure leaving her not quite sure she had even seen them. The thirty year-old turned her eyes downward, casting her gaze away from the co- owner's eyes.

"I choose how to discipline my employees, if you want to set up your own shop, and run it, and hire people. Then by all means do it. Then you can be the one to say, that you will allow your costumers to hit the people that you hired. But if you haven't noticed, this is my shop. I run things here. What happens to the people I hire is something I decide."

Rachel felt a light pressure come on her shoulder. She tensed up slightly before hearing the voice. It was from the other person who owned the shop, Autumn. Her voice was level, gentle, calming, "What she is trying to say, is that we would like for you to leave. You have caused enough commotion. But before you do, please apologize to Sasha here. She wasn't the one who gave you the cold cup, she just happened to be in the area." That didn't translate Rachel's words very well, too sweet for her taste.

The woman stuttered out an apology, directed to the girl who was shaking a little at her boss's outburst, however quiet it had been. Sasha nodded, as in saying that she had accepted the apology. The woman turned to go, but was stopped when she heard Autumn speak to her again, "We would appreciate it if you didn't come back. By the way, the tea that you ordered was Frigus Opes, you might want to brush up a little on your Latin." It was the only remark that Autumn had made that seemed in the little bit mean.

Half the café was still watching them. Then Sasha decided to say something, "Do you think we need to make the subtitles of all the teas that have foreign words in them bigger?" It was said with such false innocents that everyone, who had been listening in, giggled a little, glad that something had released the tension in the air.

"Latin deary, Latin's, a dead language. It's sad really, such beautiful words are found in that language." Autumn chuckled as Sasha turned back to continue her job, she wasn't getting paid to stand around doing nothing all day.

Rachel stood still where she was, trying to get her mind under control. She was barely aware of the world around her. The only thing that she was positive about was that the woman who had started all of this had left. She heard Autumn speak, but this time so that only she could hear, "You need to chill, we're closing up in thirty minutes. Help the people who are looking at the books. They always seem to calm you down." Rachel nodded mutely and turned to go back inside. She kept trying to compose her face on the way there, smiling at anyone who caught her eye, or what she hoped was smiling.

A few kids where milling about the book section. Actually about seven or eight, six and seven year olds. They all seemed to stick close to each other and where hunched over a picture book. Rachel, moving over towards them, she saw what book they where reading. Well, they where more of looking at the pictures of _Teen Titans: the Original Five_.

Smiling slightly she moved over to where a girl about her age was looking at books. Soon, somehow, they fell into a complicated discussion about some book that one of the girl's friends had published. Both girls seemed to be dissecting the reason for the different book covers on the front. Slowly Rachel started to relax again and forget about what had happened. When the little clock in the café struck ten, Rachel said goodbye to the girl she was talking with, and helped to usher the customers who where still lingering, out.

Autumn and Rachel were the ones who always cleaned up their little shop. They worked in silence for a few minutes before Autumn spoke up, while bringing her auburn hair into a messy bun, "You almost lost it, you realize that right?"

Rachel looked up from sweeping the floors. She looked at Autumn in the eye for a second before looking back down. "You're right. I almost did."

Sighing the 27 year old continued to place the chairs up on the table. "Her name's Francis Dulter."

Rachel looked up at Autumn, getting ready to voice her question before Autumn answered it for her, "She payed with a credit card. What did you think I did it? Stalk her?" Rachel smiled a little. Though her smile disappeared when she heard what else Autumn had to say, "You could of made less of a scene. You had a few people scared, that isn't good for business."

"Well, it wouldn't be that bad for it to go down. I don't always like it when it is as hectic as it has been."

"But it does pay the bills," Autumn contradicted.

"It did before."

"Barely" Autumn countered.

Sighing, Rachel fell silent for a moment before continuing onto a different topic, one that needed to be discussed, "You know that we now have enough money to get a new security system right?"

Autumn nodded, but seemed hesitant. It was now Rachel's turn to do a lot of the talking to presuade her friend. "You remember what happened three weeks ago right?" Autumn nodded again.

They had come into the shop to open up, and the whole place was ransacked. The cash registers had all been broken into, not to mention that most of the windows had been broken. A good chunk of their money gone. They had been closed down for the day. The police had come around, and investigated, but they didn't find anything. They had to replace all the windows, which came a lot from their own money, and not just what they kept for the café when they had emergencies, the price had been too high. They were able to have all the windows repaired with in two days which was nice. A few other break-ins had happened, yet they couldn't find the people. The police was going with the idea that they were all different people. In other words, they really needed a new security system.

"I'll take the day off of work today to get someone to come in. Any suggestions on the place?"

Autumn looked up sharply, "There is no way you are dealing with anyone else all of today. Do it tomorrow." Her eyes softened as she glanced at Rachel once more, "Cy's Security is suppose to be really good. And call into the shelter, no way are you going to be dealing with kids after what happened."

"I'm not taking two days of my vacation time, in a row. Especially on last minute notice."

"Just call in sick."

"But someone saw me at the café, we do have a lot of different people buy the tea."

"Say you have a family problem, and need the week off."

"They're going to look into it. And I don't have family to have problems with."

"They're not going to go prying, think about it. These people never pry, unless they need it. They're like professional un-priers. And they aren't going to care if someone who only ever took two days vacation in three years, wants two days off, you could even squeeze a week out probably, to be with some long lost cousin of yours, who you stumbled across on MySpace when doing weird cross references." Autumn finished her speech, and went back to cleaning up, while waiting for Rachel to answer. She knew that Rachel was thinking it over.

Rachel was indeed thinking it over, while finishing her sweeping. She wanted the days off. She wanted to get a good relaxation period in. She hadn't in over two weeks, and that was starting to take its toil. There was so much that she needed to catch up on, mostly tax and stuff, but also some more teas, the store was long over due for a new tea. Then all the new books that she had a preview of, when you have a good café, that has a book spot, some authors give you a rough draft of their book. Elisa, who had been one of her regulars for ever, had written _Love Knots_, now a best seller. She had been able to get a rough draft and signed copy. Autumn was the one who did all the advertisements, and happy go lucky thing.

Rachel looked up, to see what time it was, eleven o'clock. They would be finished in about fifteen minutes. She really, really needed the days off that Autumn was saying she should take. "I'll do it. I'm not going to be in Aureus Solis for three days if I can get the week off. Okay?"

Autumn nodded, a smile playing on her lips. "Just call me at eleven tomorrow okay?" Rachel really got over stressed some days. These days proved it.

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	3. Ode to Pluto

**Disclamier: I don't own teen Titans**

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Fifteen minutes later, Autumn went to her job, working for a nice wedding cake place. Rachel locked the doors behind them, grabbed her purse, and headed over to Golden Hope, the shelter that she worked at. It was a small shelter, and one of the only ones in town. They took in kids off the streets; most of them had been through so much. They had taken so long to get use to her when she first came. They had thought she would leave, just like their parents did, either on purpose or not. They were always so sweet though, but none of them thought everything would last. Apparently they had learned long ago that nothing good lasts. Rachel had said nothing on the topic when one of the kids had asked her.

Pushing open the front door of the white bricked building, Rachel stepped inside. The place was rather old, and you could see most of the plumbing, but amazingly, all of the plumbing looked new, which was probably the case. "I don't care what it looks like as long as it works," was what the owner normally said. She normally manned the front desk, which was where she found the old lady.

The name tag that she wore said, 'Janet Smithy'. Janet always had her hair pulled up into a tight bun, glasses always positioned just so on her nose. Her clothes always seemed to be old fashioned, fitting just so over rather plumb body. She was, to say, a rather 'just so' person. But despite what she looked like, she was so gentle and kind with the children, always making them feel at home.

"Ah! Miss Roth, glad to see you, isn't it a bit early?" Mrs. Smithy asked.

"A little, I wanted to talk to you about that." Rachel stumbled some over her first few words. "Some family problems have come up; I want to take the week off."

"Fine my dear, just drop in if you can. You know how the children love you, you can always tell the best stories about the time." Mrs. Smithy all the time smiling down on her, it did take a lot to even get her in a bad mood.

"Thanks." Rachel walked back out the door. Happy, sort of, that she had the week off, and Janet hadn't really even questioned her, just let her have the day off, the week off. She walked back outside into the air of Jump City. It was a nice city, if you take out the abnormally high rate of crime. She passed a few boards, advertising this and that. One saying about how the television had come to another level, some others with pictures of the super hero of the city. They came by every so often, the amateurs. They were trying to get an action figure, or some place in the Jump City wall of heros. But they never really did. They never exactly were able to get their names up next to the legendary Teen Titans.

Distracted by her thoughts, Rachel went through the lobby of the apartment complex and up to her room. Only giving a brief hello to the old geezer Mr. Grako, who manned the front desk and always seemed to be a little off his rocker no matter what day it was or what medication he was on, and believe it, he had been on a lot of different medications.

She headed up the stairs instead of the elevator. The stairs were always quieter, and always seemed safer to Rachel. The stair weren't going to stop halfway between floors, like the elevator did sometimes, being twenty- two years old. Climbing up the three flights of stairs to reach her floor, she took out her key.

Pushing the door open, she smiled when she saw the familiar sight. She walked through the living room, that was located right next to the door, and into the kitchen. Setting her purse down on the counter, she started to make her tea. She poured some water into her electrical tea pot, wonderful inventions since they had come out, and placed two tea bags of Earl Grey into the kettle. To her, there was nothing like a good original glass of hot tea.

While waiting for the tea to heat up, she flipped on the TV, her normal thing, right after she got home from Aureus Solis, and before she went to Golden Hope. She watched for five minutes before she had her pot of tea done. She got a tea cup from the cabinets, then, filling her cup up with hot, steamy Earl Grey, she plopped herself down on the sofa, that was facing the TV.

"Nightwing has been spotted again. This time saving a young British girl." Rachel nearly choked on her tea in dislike, she had nothing against Nightwing. No, it was against the media. They had gotten horrible about talking about superheroes. But then she had to give them some credit. When you have the dude saving random people at night, it was sort of hard to put them in a good spotlight, well a big one, which might be the idea, Raven wasn't sure.

Besides, saying young British girl seems kind of stupid. You could say, a young child, or saving whoever the person's name was, it just seemed labeling when they just said young British girl. Then Rachel nearly choked again when she thought of another thing, it was a song that she had heard on the radio, that was utterly, and horribly cheesy. Ode to Pluto. _And you were named by a young British girl, what big rock could ever take your place/ Pluto_

Quickly she vaporized the thought. It was so utterly and horrendously, horrible. Still shivering from her horrible thought, she almost missed what came on next. "It is rumored that something is going on between Nightwing and someone else. Who we aren't sure but-" Rachel flipped off the TV, even more disgusted. They had just blown off talking about how someone's life has been changed, to who a superhero spends his days with. Taking her cup with her she headed to her bathroom, she really needed to think, but first she needed to make herself comfortable, the contacts were bugging her eyes. When you have to wear them nearly twenty-four seven, they take a toll on your eyes. Once she was in the bathroom, she took out her blue contacts. Her normal purple eyes coming into focus. Three long years, and still nobody knew. Shaking her head she left for her bedroom.

Entering the room, she struck a match, then started to light the candle that were hanging, suspended in the air by small chains. Blowing out her match she climbed up onto her bed, before taking a cross-leg position.

Three words escaped her lips as she blocked out the noise that was coming from outside the walls. As she pushed away thoughts that rose unbidden to her head. "Azarath Metrion Zinthos" over and over the words were repeated, her thoughts stilling, her brain becoming clearer, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos." Stillness, complete and utter stillness.

Her cross-legged position remained on the bed, yet her thoughts gravitated on nothing, seeing nothing hearing nothing, feeling nothing different than anyone else would, just one of her, listening to her, her one self. Her head lagged and rolled down the front of her chest, her arms drooped and her mind left its tight grip of nothingness. . .

A ringing noise startled the sleeping violet eyed girl awake. Pushing herself up from her cramped position she ran over to her phone, ringing on the wall. Grabbing it she pushed it to her ear, ignoring the stiff feeling in her neck. "Rachel Roth speaking, how can I help you?"

"Hi, this is Autumn Joyce speaking, wondering why you didn't called me at eleven when you said you would."

"Autumn it isn't even the morning; I thought you said eleven in the morning, not a night."

"Are you even looking out the windows? You still have your curtains closed don't you? Well never mind that deary. But it is three o'clock in the afternoon deary. Not in the morning, I'm not even awake then." A small chuckle escaped her mouth; she had never caught Rachel asleep after ten. "Apparently you slept right through that alarm clock that you got. Never would have called if I knew you were just sleeping. Thought you got run over by a car or something."

Rachel just shook her head, a smile playing in her lips. "Well I'm fine Autumn, now let me get some more sleep, I'll deal with that security person tomorrow, how's that? I'll call them up, and finish the bills. I think I'm going to go back to sleep now. Okay?"

"That's just fine deary. Just fine. You go back and get some sleep. Oh, almost forgot, Elisa wants to do a late book signing for that one book you helped her with or something. She ran it by me, but I said that was your choice, opening the shop up again the same day and all." Rachel stifled a yawn despite that she had been sleeping more than half the day, which apparently Autumn could hear through the phone. "Oh, I'm so sorry. You know what, just forget about it. Go to sleep, and do whatever you feel like, I'll bother you with the other things when you're done visiting your sick Aunt or whoever."

"What other things?"

"Oh," Autumn gave a little laugh to high for her voice, "nothing. Forget I said anything about the tax-" She cut herself off in the middle of the sentence. "You know what? I'm going to hang up now, bye!"

"What-" Rachel couldn't even finish her sentence before Autumn hung up. "Great." Rachel muttered to herself. Something about extra taxes, book signing, and probably all having something to do with a lax of money. Devil of Hell, what if the taxes are more than they thought they would be? Placing the phone back in its cradle, she rubbed her hands over her eyes, trying to put some life in them. She might not being doing anything today but sleep, but she wanted to get her baring first. Time was the first, thing. Glancing over she saw it was three fifteen. Looking around she saw her teapot has yet to be washed out, and tea was still left in it. Looking down at herself, she saw that she was still wearing her cloths from yesterday. Lovely, now time to go back to sleep. Throwing on a cami and some comfy pants, she blew out the candles that had burned down way to far for her liking. Grabbing the covers of her circular shaped bed, she tunneled under, pulling the blankets up to her neck, closing her eyes, she drifted into sleep, her fingers clutching the thin silver chain around her neck.

"_Buddy! Buddy no! Don't leave me! Momma's gonna come back for you. You're not alone. Momma still loves you. Buddy? Buddy!" _

"_Not all of the children make it, you should know that."_

"_No! Don't leave me! Buddy? You're gonna make it Buddy! Buddy?"_

"_He can't hear you, sweetie."_

"_Buddy? You can hear me, come on baby, open your eyes. Look at me! Open them for momma. She still loves you."_

"_He's gone."_

"_Buddy! Buddy! Don't go, come back! I need you. Buddy. . .? Buddy!? Don't leave me. . ." _

OOooOOooOOooOO


	4. Cy's Security

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.**

OOooOOooOOooOO

Flicking open the phone book, she thumbed down the list looking for Cy' Security. It didn't take her long to find it, considering that it had a big ad next to it. Calling up the number, she found out that they had elevator music when they put people on hold, and after four minutes, it gets very annoying, like ready to kill someone annoying. Pulling open the freezer she took out a few frozen waffles and stuck them in the toaster. Not eating anything for a full day makes a person kind of hungry. It takes three minutes to toast the waffles just right, added to the four previous minutes of elevator music, and you get someone who is ready to yell at the person who is keeping you on hold, with elevator music.

Finally a voice came on, "Hello, you've reached Cy's Security, how may we help you?"

"Hi, this is Rachel Roth calling for Aureus Solis. I would like to get an estimate." Rachel took the waffles out from the toaster and set them on a plate. She walked around to the cabinet and got out the syrup while she worked on setting up an appointment at her café. It is so hard sometimes to get people to understand that the reason you want someone to come over to the sight, is so that you could get an estimate. After about seven minutes of talking, answering yes and no, which is basically about everything Rachel did, they had finally decided for noon at the café. Hanging up the phone, Rachel placed her attention on the food that was waiting for her. She use to remember a time when there had been home cooked waffles, but she shook that thought from her head. That time wasn't now, and looking at the past only ever brought bad things back. That chapter of her life was closed; it was a book that she was never going to open again.

Glancing over at the clock, which read about ten thirty, she placed her dish in the sink, and turned on the water so that the plate could soak, so that it wasn't so hard to do the dishes when she came back from the café.

Walking back to her room, she pulled out a pair of cloths, and went over to the bathroom, turning the water on. Stripping down, she stepped delicately into the shower. Her muscles relaxed as she felt the warm water run down her body. Pulling up her hair, she could feel the water pulse over her neck, in time to her heart beat, down her silver necklace, shimmering with the droplets.

Turning off the water she threw on some cloths, and placed her contacts over her violet eyes, turning them into a majestic blue. Rubbing her eyes, she held back a yawn as she walked back into her bedroom. She was forgetting something, and she couldn't remember it. Something to do with the shop. . . Walking through to the kitchen, Rachel started to mutter under her breath. What was that thing she was missing? Taking the half empty tea pot, she dumped it down the sink before refilling it and starting up a new pot of tea. Something having to do with the shop. . . Security person. . . Coming over at twelve. Right! The papers! Going back into her room she pulled up her closet, and swept aside cloths, which is something someone would find in a closet, to see a safe in the back of the wall. Punching in the combination, then opening it up, only to find another key pad, which Rachel also put the code into.

Pulling open the door to reveal several files, Rachel pulled out one of the folders, and walked over to her bed with it. Barely glancing at the top part as she sorted through, she stopped at the newest paper that seemed to hold the balance of the shop. Pulling it out of the folder, she gathered everything else up, before throwing them in the safe, and closing both doors. Folding up the one paper, she put it into the front pocket of her jeans. Placed the cloths in her closet strategically over the metal box, and shut the doors. Going back to the kitchen she pulled the phone off of its cradle and dialed Autumn's number, long memorized.

"Hello, you've reached Autumn Joyce. I'm not available at the moment, please leave a message after the beep. Thanks bye!" Pouring herself a cup of tea while she waited for the beep, Raven started to talk into the phone, cradled between her shoulder and right ear. "Hi Autumn, Raven. It is eleven- fifteen. Just let you know that I didn't get run over by a car. Someone from Cy's Security is coming over today at noon. So don't freak if you see a car in front of the store. So bye." Returning the phone to its spot, she sank into the couch, and started to sip, her mind wandering, but not really staying on any thought too long. Glancing up at the clock she stuck her mug in the sink, and pulled on a jacket, before turning off the light, and heading to the café.

She took the stairs, ignoring the pealing white paint, and waved to the old geezer sitting at the desk, before heading outside. Her head ducked low, brown hair hiding contacted colored eyes. Hands in pockets, feet going one in front of the other, not looking up to acknowledge any one walking by. Opening up the door, she walked in, turning on the lights to get rid of the creepy feeling that was crawling up her spine, and pulling down a chair or two off of a table. She watched the window till she saw a white van pull up in front of the café, the words Cy's Security painted in blue letters on the side. Two people stepped out of the van, and started up the side walk, glancing around the lawn of the little water front building.

When they were closer to the door, Rachel opened it up, a small smile gracing her lips. "Hi, you must be from the security company. I'm Ms. Roth."

"Yes we are miss. Glad to make your acquaintance. This here is Matthew, he's new here. I'm Vic, the one showing him the ropes." The older one spoke, while gesturing to the younger one, as Matthew. "So what were you wanting here?"

"Some cameras would be nice, something small, the customers wouldn't want to see cameras on them, bad for business. An alarm system would be good too."

"So you don't have anything?"

"Neighbor hospitality doesn't count?"

"Not when they're trying to buy the land right out from under you." Rachel raised her eyebrows at Vic, and the corners of her mouth raised a little higher, as Vic started to show himself around the café, not really going out of Rachel's sight, but still slightly irking the woman. He ran his hand over some places every so often, testing the walls and framing. Matt stood by looking like he was lost, or just not sure what he should do. Rachel, seeming to sense that, waved him over to one of the chairs. She strategically placed herself so she could see both Vic and Matt.

After a few moments Matt spoke up. "How much are you planning on paying for security?"

"How much do you think it will cost?" She asked, purposely avoiding the question.

He shrugged when she had not replied to his question, but asked her own, which he answered, please the customer before anything else was the main thing, "About nine thousand for a really good system." She paled a little, she didn't need to take out the paper in her pocket to know that it was too much than what they had. _Better not think about that, _she thought. _Think about that when you have the actual amount it will cost._

"So how many cameras are you thinking about getting?" Vic had come up behind them during their exchange of a few words, startling Matthew, but not Rachel, who was use to customers sneaking up behind her.

"Five, six? What do you think?"

"Depends, what do you want the camera's range to be? Do you want to have some heavy duty ones outside, so that you can see the land? Do you want to be able to access this all from a cell phone?" He stopped his questioning so that he could wait for Rachel to answer and file the answers away later so that he could come up with a better idea of what she wants. People keep thinking that doing security is all just, 'I want cameras', but they don't realize it comes with all these options that you have to decide what you want.

"I don't know, 70 feet? It would be nice to see the lawn. Maybe not on a cell phone, but I want it easily accessible." She finished answering Vic's questions and went on to give her opinions, much to his delight. The girl seemed to be catching on that you have to tell him what you want in order to get it. "Door alarms would also be nice, just like a beeping, but something that I could turn on and off easily. It won't be really good if every time a customer walks in a beeping sounds. I don't want instant call responses. . ." The two kept talking about everything she wanted, while Vic just seemed to be taking it all in, and Matthew was taking notes, which Rachel figured would be something he was quizzed on later, to make sure the trainee had gotten everything, and wasn't off day dreaming.

"Do you always do this for customers?" Rachel asked, suddenly curious. It seemed like such a hassle to go through this every time someone wanted security.

Vic nodded, "That's what makes the company so special. So I think I have everything. How much are you willing to spend on security anyway?" She never did answer Matthew's question.

"However much it is going to be."

"Okay then, I'm guessing about thirteen thousand, give or take a few hundred. It doesn't cost so much for the equipment, but to get the cameras in, the way that you want them, so that people can't see them, all this trim will need to be ripped out, and some of the wall, so that we can tap into the electricity that is already flowing through the café."

"How long will it take?"

"Normally about four or five days, full days that is." He noticed that the co-owner was playing with her silver necklace, probably trying to think of how they could still pay the bills and close down for five days. "We could probably do it quicker, two days maybe, but it will cost more. You think it over, and we need to meet to finalize everything. I'm in my office from nine to four each day." He handed her a card and motioned for Matthew to come. "Thanks miss, the sooner you call the sooner we can set up an appointment and finalize things."

"Bye." Rachel said as she watched the two men pile into the white truck and drive away. Closing the door behind them, she glanced at the clock in the corner. Four o'clock. Inwardly she groaned. It had been four hours of talking everything over, she hadn't even seen any pictures, which the next appointment would be, or to think of how to pay for everything. Thirteen thousand dollars was a little much for their budget, maybe they would have to go with something a little more low key, or dip even more into their personal savings, she wasn't sure how Autumn would cope, she was already running a little low on money from the last emergency. Looking down at the card she saw everything she really needed to know about Vic. His name was Victor Stone, there was his number, his location, and other stuff that she was amazed could fit onto a business card. Making a quick check of the café, to make sure Autumn had cleaned up nicely, and putting ghte two chairs up, she opened the front door and went out, locking the door behind her, and headed back over to her apartment.

Mr. Grako smiled at her when she came in and waved her over. "You got a package today. A little birdy flew it in, right through that window over there." He pointed to the wall over her head, where there wasn't a window, just a wall. "It was a pretty birdy, I think it came from paradise. Pretty colors, it was a big owl. Its talons were holding-"

Rachel took the package from Mr. Grako's hand, cutting off his rambling and asked, lightly, "You didn't take your medication today, did you?"

He looked at her for a few seconds before rambling on again, "The view is quite splendid out the window. Can't you just see the rainbow Miss Roth?"

Rachel rolled her eyes, which Mr. Grako didn't seem to notice, and went up the stairs, leaving him talking to no one. Looking down at the package she looked at the address. To Mrs. Kahn. Rolling her eyes, Rachel turned back to the front desk, going down the few steps she had already climbed, and placed it back in Mr. Grako's hands. "It's for Mrs. Kahn."

"Oh, does she live here?"

"Apparently." Rachel said, and then left. She had no idea how the geezer is still at the front desk. He was always giving people the wrong mail, and talking about things that didn't exist, the window was one of his favorite things, always had a rainbow in it. Walking back up to her apartment she opened to door, and went right to the phone, and called Autumn. She should be back from work by now. As the phone rang she poured a glass of tea, and stuck it in the microwave to heat up, and she started to fill part of the double sink with hot water, to start cleaning the dishes from breakfast.

"Hi Rachel, how did it go? I got your message a while ago but didn't call because I figured you would have called back once you got home. So how did it go?"

"It went fine Autumn. I need to set up another appointment to make sure I like all the security features and what not. The person who came out was really nice, and all."

"But?" Autumn prodded it wasn't too hard to realize that something was wrong.

"It will take about five or six days, or maybe only two or three if we pay something more." Rachel turned off the water and put some dish soap in the scalding water.

"Come Rachel, that isn't what you're worried about." Autumn's voice was light and cheerful, and didn't seem to get the hint Rachel wanted for her to pick up, so that she didn't have to say what was really bad. "Oh. . ." Autumn's voice got soft and she trailed off. "How much?"

"Thirteen thousand without rushing everything." Rachel pointedly worked on the dishes, even if Autumn couldn't see her.

"Well, that is a lot." Autumn swallowed, trying to keep her voice from freaking out. We can pay for about half of it now, without forgetting to pay the taxes. Can we get a loan?"

"We can, but we still need to dig into our own money. Do you have enough for your taxes?"

"Barely, and Christmas is only three months away, and Jen. . ." Autumn's voice trailed off. "So when are you planning on going to the office to pick everything out, or confirm everything?"

"He said I could come pretty much anytime tomorrow. Do you want to come?"

"No, I need to watch Jen, and I can't pay for a sitter any longer than normal, and if what you say is true, about the money, then I can't leave the café. Besides, you know all this stuff better than I do, and you know how much I can afford, probably better than I know."

"I could take Jen tomorrow, at least for a few hours, save the sitter money for Christmas."

"Thanks, Rachel, I got to finish dinner. Don't want to burn anything. Can I drop her off at your house, around four? I'll let myself in and everything, she should sleep for at least four hours before waking up."

"That's fine. Bye Autumn." Hanging up the phone Rachel finished the dishes, and took her tea from the microwave. Sipping it, making a small face at the tea from the morning, she sat down in front of the couch, and flipped on the television. She didn't even listen to it, just wanted the background noise. It was only four thirty and she had nothing to do, and it was too early for dinner. Wait, yes she did have something to do, taxes. She should pay those first before she forgot, or spent too much. Shutting off the television she went into her room, and opened the metal box, to take out a different folder, and some of things she needed, and started, sipping her old tea every so often.

OOooOOooOOooOO

An African American was sitting at his desk, pouring over the notes his trainee had taken, and comparing it to what he had gotten, yet not really looking everything over, except to make sure they had the same things. No it was on the young lady he had visited today for security. Miss Roth. He couldn't get the person out of his head. She seemed so like Raven, but not exactly. It couldn't be, she died. But then she had come back to life eight times in the past five years. Besides, Raven wouldn't have used such an obvious name. Besides, it isn't like she would show the gem on her head freely. But then, some people have things like that, because of their religion, or because they thought it was the new style. Besides, the girl could smile, not like Raven could even show emotions, but then, she always had the other times they found her. Before she died, or killed herself. The large structured man started to massage his head. He so needed to call Robin on this one.

"Hi Vic. How's it going?" Robin's voice was easy and cheerful.

"Great, sorry I didn't call you in a while. I need to talk to you about something. Is the line. . .?" Vic's voice trailed off. Asking someone if the line was bugged wasn't exactly something someone would ask, unless they were doing something illegal. Which they weren't, technically.

"Yeah, it's free." His voice had suddenly become sort of commanding like a leader's voice.

"Can you check out the background on someone for me?"

"Who? And Why?"

"Rachel Roth, and because I think, you know. . ." He voice trailed off again, this really wasn't the funnest thing in the world to talk about. He could hear a small intake of breath on the other end.

"But the name is to, to," Robin fumbled for the word, "to, predicting."

"Did you run any searches on the name?"

"No"

"That might be why she picked it, because she knew you would think it was too obvious. Just don't tell anyone okay."

"You do know that she could actually be dead this time, there was no way she could have faked this one. And the connection is dead, again."

"That happened last time too, didn't it? But we found her."

"Just don't do anything, we don't know for sure, and we should get all the facts about her life before we barge in." Robin stopped in thought as an idea hit him. "But maybe, maybe the reason she killed herself the other times, because she didn't like that we knew so much about her. How 'bout I just check, to see if it could be her, and then we could visit her, maybe."

"You might be right on that, it does seem like something Raven would do, but she probably had more of a motive." He just ran right over into a different subject, he had said what he wanted, and didn't want to spend any more time on that particular subject. "So Robin, or should I say Richard, how has your life been going?"

"Pretty much the same since last time."

"How is Mrs. Grayson doing? You plan on having a baby any time soon?"

"She's doing good! Just as beautiful as ever. No baby yet, I want to wait a little longer, she wants one though." His voice sounded sort of like a love sick puppy, and Vic snickered, it was so funny, even after two years.

OOooOOooOOooOO


	5. Jen

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.**

OOooOOooOOooOO

Rachel's eyes flashed awake at the sound to her bedroom door being opened, heavy footsteps coming into her room. Her heartbeat increased for a few moments, before it settled. She could hear uneven footsteps in-between the solid ones. Struggling with the slight grogginess, Rachel rose up into a sitting position, looking over to the two figures standing in her doorway, she could barely make out the flame red hair of both the smaller and taller, and opened her arms to the smaller look-alike of Autumn. The little girl's eyes perked up and she bounced into Rachel's awaiting arms. "Hey, how's my little niece?" Jen's response was to snuggle closer. Rachel breathed in the scent coming off of Jen's hair as she looked over to Autumn, standing by the door, who a small bag and placed it by the doorway. Then coming over to her daughter's side, she whispered something in her ear, which the child took in good grace, a smile playing on her lips, as she nodded her head. "Change of clothes are in the bag." Autumn started to walk off, then at the door she turned around, the two friend's eyes locked again, as Autumn smiled, "Thanks."

Smiling, Rachel laid back down onto the bed, taking Jen with her. "You be a good girl and fall asleep, okay?" Rachel could feel Jen's little head nod in response, as the little girl's eyes closed. Rachel closed her eyes only a few seconds later, the breath of the two people falling into an easy rhythm.

Seemingly only seconds later, Rachel woke, little Jen nestled in her arms. She looked down at the sleeping child, who had been the outcome of a late night with some guy five years ago. Autumn's mother had wanted an abortion, but for some reason Autumn had refused. Rachel was happy with Autumn's decision, and was happy when she, Rachel, who had come into their lives three years ago, she had been made an Aunt. The little bundle of four year-old joy was just that, a bundle of joy. Rachel gently pulled her arms from under the child, trying not to wake her, and went into the bathroom. Opening the drawer, she put her contacts in, and blinked rapidly a few times before the walls came back into focus. Normally she wouldn't have them on till she needed to go out, but Jen wasn't clued in about her life before now. Going back into her bedroom, she saw that the red head was still sleeping. Seeing that it was nine thirty, Rachel moved into the kitchen to heat up a pot of tea, and grab the phone and Vic's card from the kitchen. She stood outside of the bedroom door as she dialed, not wanting to wake the child, but not willing to leave her alone to wake up in a new environment.

"Hello, Victor Stone here, from Cy's Security. How may I help you?" The voice came in from the other end of the line.

Rachel turned her back to the room as she answered. "This is Rachel Roth from the café, Aureus Solis, you came out yesterday." Rachel could faintly hear the shuffling of papers as she waited for a response.

"Yes, that's right. You need an appointment." Rachel turned to a small rustling sound coming from behind her, and saw that her little charge was waking up. "Does ten thirty work?"

"I have a child for pre-school, how about eleven thirty?" She could hear the keyboard clicking away on the other side.

"Can do, see you then."

"Bye," Hanging up the phone, she walked over to the little girl. Placing the phone and card on the bedside table she bent down beside Jen. "I know you're awake." Rachel watched as Jen tried to hold back a smile. It wasn't working too well. Rachel moved back a few inches before, all of a sudden, seizing her little niece and picking her up into the air. The little girl's eyes flew open, and she let out a small screech. After a second or two in the air, Rachel let the girl fall back on to the bed. "Are you awake now?" Jen shook her head, eyes shining with happiness. "Oh, too bad, I guess you don't want breakfast then."

"I'm up." Jen sprung up from that bed after that comment and was already half way to the door before Rachel even turned around. Smiling, Rachel followed Jen through the door and to the kitchen. "Pre-school starts at eleven. You need to eat up before that." Rachel walked over to the freezer, and opened it up. "What do you want? Waffles? Waffles or waffles?" It was the only food that she had that Autumn allowed her girl to eat for breakfast, cheerios were out of the question, as were most cereals because of Autumn's phobia of her little girl choking.

"Waffles!" Jen cried out, her mom didn't let her have waffles at her house, because it was always what they had for breakfast at Auntie Rachel's.

Rachel pulled out two waffles for the happy four year old, and popped them into the toaster. Walking over to the TV she flipped it on to ToonDisney and motioned for Jen to come over and watch the mouse that couldn't decide if he should use a wrench or a piece of paper to make a paper heart. Rachel really didn't like the little shows, sure she enjoyed Mickey Mouse as much as the next person, just not the one that can't count to ten without major pauses. She left Jen watching TV as she brought out plates, forks, and syrup. Going to her tea pot, she got herself a nice steaming cup of earl grey. Breathing in the aroma, she watched as Jen laughed at the things the mouse was doing and puzzle out some of the questions. The waffles popped, bringing them out she put them on the plate, then cut them up into smaller pieces. "Jen, food." Jen ripped her gaze from the TV to go over to the small table in the kitchen. Rachel placed the syrup next to the waffle eater, watching as the girl poured more and more syrup onto the waffles as the girl shoved them into her mouth.

"Milk or water?" Rachel pulled a cup off from the shelf, and waited for Jen's answer, which came after she finished the piece of waffle she had just crammed into her mouth.

"Milk."

Nodding in approval, Rachel poured the girl a cup, which she drank greedily, then held it out for a refill, which Rachel complied to. She watched the little girl eat before she finally tore her gaze away to inspect the contents of her cup. It was just like, no, Rachel refused to put that thought into her mind, but it was so like before. Watching TV and her watching people shove food into their mouths, and her with her cup of- Stop! Mentally Rachel pounded herself. The days for that were long gone. She had left it once. Then refused to go back eight times in the first two years, she had left everything, even new friends she had made, to not go back to that life. No way, she had to restart nine times, this being her ninth, and she wasn't planning on leaving it after building herself up for three years. She glanced over at the girl who was shoving food into her mouth. This was what a normal person did when they were 24, and she planned to stay normal, she liked it, even if money was sometimes a problem. The chapter of that life had closed five years ago.

When Jen finally finished shoving waffles piled high with syrup down her throat, Rachel placed the plate into the sink, and started to do the dishes. Without being asked to do it, Jen put the syrup in the cupboard were it belonged, then went over to the TV setting herself down on the sofa. Leaving her charge again, Rachel went back into her bedroom, and brought out the telephone and the bag that Autumn had left for Jen. Looking through the contents as she went back into the room, she pulled out a pair of cloths to replace the pajamas the girl was wearing. Placing the phone back into the cradle, she waited for a commercial to come on before forcing Jen to put on the cloths. Which the girl did after some fuss. Going back into her room, Rachel got some of her own cloths and took a quick shower, before she came back into the room feeling all fresh, with a pair of jeans and white shirt on.

"Come on, time for school." As Jen flipped off the TV, Rachel grabbed her bag, a light, dark blue sweater, and turned off the lights. Closing to door behind both of them, Rachel and Jen made there way out the door. With Jen stopping to wave hello to Mr. Garko, as he complimented her on her pretty yellow dress, which made Jen smile, and twirl around once in it for him. Jen was twirling in her dress, and being happy as can be every step of theor walk. Ushering Jen into the classroom, Rachel kissed the girl on top of the forehead, telling her she would be back at three. Jen waved to her retreating aunt, before going over to the Barbies and playing with them till some more kids got there.

Pulling Vic's card out of her purse, Rachel looked at the address again. She sighed slightly. It was a big walk. She could take a taxi, which costs a lot of money. No money was already short, walking was the way to go. Pulling the hood of her dark blue sweater up, she started to walk to the Cy's Security office. It was nice outside for a stroll, but not for a brisk walk.

She stopped at the address and looked up at the impressive building, the words 'Cy's Security' placed at the top of the seven story building. She walked through the revolving doors, and looked into the room. It seemed like hundreds of people were all coming and going at the same time, making the room seem much smaller than it actually was as she moved through it to the desk in the center of the room. Pushing her way between a cluster of people talking, she got the attention of one of four desk clerks.

"Hello, how may I help you?" The person sounded overly bored. Rachel sure didn't care of the person was bored as long as he could get her what she wanted.

"I have an appointment with Victor Stone, for eleven thirty."

The attendant looked at his computer for a second, clicking a few things, before pointing to an elevator over to his right. "Floor five, fifth on the right, can't miss it. The name is on his door in flashing lights."

Feeling dismissed, Rachel moved toward the elevators that the employee had so kindly pointed out. She tapped her foot for a few minutes, as the elevator came around. When the door opened she waited for the passengers to come out, before going in along with a good deal of other people. Seeing that the fifth floor had already been pushed, she just sat and waited. The first thing she noticed was that there was elevator music. Suppressing a groan she wondered why elevator music couldn't be like, good music, or something that you didn't make you want to blow the head off of the person next to you.

When she finally got off, she followed the directions she had been given, moving down the doors, she saw, true to the guy's word, there was no missing the door, which looked ready for Christmas. The door was wrapped in bright red and green wrapping paper, and had flashing lights that spelled out his name, even though it was only September. Knocking lightly on the door, she heard a muffled, "Come in." Pushing open the door, she saw Vic sitting at his desk, two computer monitors, along with a laptop, sitting off to the left. She sat in one of the two chairs in front of the desk, finding, quite happily, that they were comfy. All over the walls, she saw pictures of the Teen Titans, from newspaper clippings, to pictures of the T-Tower. She saw behind him a blown up picture of the Teen Titans, one that she was sure had never made it to the press, though she could be mistaken.

"Fan of the Titans I see." Vic nodded, and pulled up several things on his screen which Rachel could not see, and tapped a few things into the keyboard.

"So, down to business." He picked up several things from out of his drawers, and placed them on the table between him and his client. "These are several examples of the cameras I think you might like." Looking down at the objects she saw that they were all small, very small. "This one over here," he picked up the one that looked like a small nail, "is specially designed so that it looks like a nail, so that no one can really tell that a camera is in it." Rachel barely suppressed rolling her eyes, at the no-duh explanation of what it looks like. One after the other, he explained each thing, what was the range, and the amount of money each camera would cost, and what it would take to install each one. After looking at all of the cameras, Vic brought out a floor plan of her café, along with inside shots of it.

"Were did you get this all?" It was better than her copy of the floor plan.

"We're a security firm; we have this kind of thing." He shrugged it off, when actually he had to pull in more favors than normal to get the floor plan. The pictures he had just taken himself, during Rachel's tour of her café. "So here was were I was thinking we could put the cameras. . ." He pointed out different places for everything, adding what they would have to do, rip out this piece of trim, add this piece, and for what camera type. After another hour of looking through everything, he was finally done. "The cheapest you can do everything for, while covering every inch of your café, is 25 thousand dollars, including the installation, not rushed."

Closing her eyes for a few minutes, Rachel calculated the amount in her mind. They could do it, with taking out an elevn thousand dollar loan from the bank. It would take about two years to pay it back with only the shop income, and what they got from the shop. Only one and a half years if they use their own money from their other jobs. Only one year if they upped the prices of everything. Maybe take a few days off, if she moved in with Autumn. Opening her eyes, she looked at the expecting sales person. "How much if we rush it?" She closed her eyes, ready for the amount of money he would say, she wasn't disappointed.

"27 thousand."

So add a year to everything, taking out an eleven thousand dollar loan. Take Jen to the shelter with her for the afternoon, instead of the daycare. Or, Rachel took a deep breath, Autumn could convince for her mother to watch the girl. Take off a third of a year for paying the loan, about. All of this was about, actually it was best case scenario. No raise in the taxes, no raise in rent, no loss in customers. She was basing this all on chance to get a security system. She could forget it all now, but they need it, with the break-ins, and crime getting higher each year. They needed it. Opening her eyes again, Rachel looked over at Vic. "We'll do that, what about paper work?"

"All ready done, I need your signature and the co-owner's signature. Once you get this back to me, we can start." Taking the small stack of paper from him, she nodded and left the room, glancing at the clock, reading three thirty. Rachel's eyes widened. She had forgotten about Jen, and she was already thirty minutes late. As soon as her feet had hit the sidewalk outside, Rachel started flat out running. Autumn was going to kill her.

OOooOOooOOooOO

Once he saw Miss Roth leave, Vic picked up his cell phone and dialed, "Richard?"

"Hey Vic, two times in one week, you must be happy."

"Its about. . ." Vic trailed off, letting Richard answer his unasked question.

"Yeah, lines free. Hey I got you some information on Miss Roth. Started up that shop about three years ago. But that is pretty much it. Brown hair, dark blue eyes, she has a stone in her head, like Raven did, but it could just be apart of her religion, or style. So what did you want to tell me?"

"Its her. Listen, she just came to my office to finalize some details on the security system for her café. I got her DNA."

"You did_ what_?" Richard's voice rose to what could only be called shouting.

"Chill, a piece of hair, nothing big like a blood sample or something. And it's a match. The hair is dyed too. I think she is trying to hide the real color."

"But all this is so, out there, how do you even know she still wants us back into her lives?"

"I don't, but the least we can do before she goes off and stages her death again, better than the last time. Besides, we can just update her on Star, and you and how our lives are going. Okay? We can go over to her house right now, I bet you know where it is already. I can get a different ring, change myself a little, no big. You on the fake IDs?"

OOooOOooOOooOO

Rachel made it to the pre-school in record time, out of breath, and trying to compose herself. Entering the classroom, she was embarrassed to find that Jen was the last child in the room, but not the last person, who happened to be the teacher.

"Ah, Miss Roth, glad you could make it." The teacher said nothing more, even though disaproval was radiating off of her.

"Why were you late Auntie Rakel?" Jen looked at her with big innocent eyes. Rachel worked around in her brain to find words that wouldn't back her into a hole, if Autumn found out.

"I needed to work on some things for Mommy and me." Jen nodded at what her aunt said, and told herself to run it by Mommy. Taking Jen's little hand, Rachel led her out of the room, and back on to the streets. Trekking back to Rachel's apartment, Jen twirled about in her dress, a few passer buyers complimenting Jen on her dress. Opening the door to the lobby, Mr. Grako called out to her, "Ah, Miss Roth! Two very nice gentlemen arrived and wanted to see you. They're in your room right now, I let them in."

Rachel's eyes shot open wide, rounding on Mr. Grako. "You did what?"

"I let them in your room, they're waiting there patiently for you. They were really nice."

Devil of Hell, grabbing Jen's hand, Rachel ran up the stairs, with Jen being dragged along. Mr. Grako had done this before to some other guest, he had felt that a murderer who had pulled a gun on him and threatened him, was the best gentleman in the world, couldn't possibly be nicer. There hadn't been a murder, but it had come close. Stopping at her door, she rounded on Jen, pulling out a can of pepper spray out of her purse she handed it to the girl, "If there is any bad people in there, you sray them with this if they come close. Its like your spraying bug spray at them okay, except it isn't that nice." Jen rolled her eyes at Rachel, but she took the spray. "Jen, Mr. Grako is a little ditzy, I'm not sure who he let into my apartment, but anything I say once we enter the room you've got to do. Don't leave me, or wander off, if you see someone tug on my hand, don't holler.Okay?" Rachel looked down on the little four year-old with intense eyes. The child nodded, all funniness of the situation gone.

Pulling a small handgun out of her bag, Rachel tried the handle, unlocked. Taking a breath, she kicked open the door, and waited. Taking another breath she walked inside, gun held steady. Her eyes swept quickly over the interior of her home, settling to rest on two men. They were sitting on her sofa, feet up when she came in. The two looked up feeling watched, to see an angry woman with a gun pointed straight at their hearts. Wearily both men rose to their feet, hands in the air. The black haired on pulled out a police badge and showed it to the gun handler. "We're from the police, and are ordering-"

"Oh my god, you have a baby!" The African American broke into the black haired one's speech. A look of shock on his face, as Jen came out from behind Rachel, her eyes opened wide with fear, the bottle of pepper spray held at the ready. "Dang Raven, I didn't- shit."

"Excuse me?" Rachel asked, her eyebrows raised.

"Uh, nothing," The first policeman to speak broke back in, fumbling, very apparently, to come up with an excuse, "recently his wife died and he keeps, uh, seeing her places, and they never had a child. So, like I was saying, we're here from the police and have a search warrant to search your house."

"Where's the warrant?"

"What do you mean?" The blacked haired man paled a little.

"You know, the little piece of paper that means you're allowed to search my house, without me seriously hurting you for trespassing."

"We don't have it," The African American muttered. Bringing his hands down, the spikey haired one gave his partner a weird look.

"Then please, leave, before I call the _real_ police on you." Pushing Jen back against the wall, she motioned to the door with her hand not holding the gun. She watched as the two men started for the door. "Wait." The two men stopped and looked at her questioningly. "Empty your pockets." They paled, but none the less, dug into their pockets and pulled up everything in them. Nothing looked suspicious to her yet. "What about that other pocket?" Rachel inquired about the one pocket that had yet to be emptied.

"Its empty."

"Then turn it inside out." The heavy built man didn't move. "Do it." Her voice getting quiet. Rachel watched as he turned the pocket inside out, a small ring falling out, landing with a thud on the ground. "Devil of Hell." She whispered. She knew that ring. A long time ago she saw it in use. Walking forward to the ring, she reached down and picked it up. She knew that ring so well, she remember what it had been used for too. "Jen, go get the phone." Out of the corner of her eyes she watched Jen scamper off to get the phone, while she pocketed the ring. Rachel took it from the girl and dialed Autumn's number. "Autumn, its Rachel."

"Hey good to talk to you, how is Jen doing."

"I need you to come pick her up."

"Why?"

"Just- Please? I'll explain later. She'll meet you down by Mr. Grako."

"Rachel? Are you okay, does this have anything to do with-"

"Autumn, just this once. Okay?" The only reply she got was the click of the phone on the other end being turned off. Sighing she brought the ohone down to her side and turned to Jen, "Can you wait for Autumn down by Mr. Grako." It wasn't a question, Jen knew as much. She handed Rachel the pepper spray when a hand was held out for it. Giving a small smile Jen disappeared out the door, which Rachel closed behind her. Turning around, Rachel leveled the gun once again at the two intruders. Digging into her pocket with the other hand, Rachel pulled out the ring. "Catch." She tossed it over to the person who's pocket it had fallen out of. He looked at her questionenly. "Put it on." He shook his head and glared at her. "I said put it on." Rachel's voice was strong but the hand holding the gun shook slightly as she watched him slowly slide the ring on to his finger.

OOooOOooOOooOO


	6. Breaking Souls

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.**

OOooOOooOOooOO

The African American's image flickered. A bright blue seemed to be showing through at certain parts, but then it was gone. The image stopped flickering, and a small sigh escaped his mouth. Then he was gone. In the place were he had once stood, he still stood, but he was different. A metal suit surrounded most of his body, and neon blue shoulder pads were in place of where it had once been normal looking skin. The right side of his face was made out of mechanical parts, and a red glow replaced what had been his eye.'

"No," Rachel's voice was small, like she was trying to tell herself that it wasn't really happening to her, that this was all fake. She raised the gun again. If she shot at it, it would go away, just like dreams do, no harm would come to him, and he would be gone, from her mind, from her home. She pointed it at the metal man, and pulled the trigger. A flash of someone moving to her left caught her eye, and she turned, just in time to be slammed down to the ground by the other man. He tried to take the gun from her, but Rachel wouldn't let it go, the gun was hers. Another shot filled the air, and the gun was gone from her hand. Looking up she saw was the man she had shot clutching at his shoulder, blood flowing out of it. "You're not gone." She said simple.

"No shit Raven."

"You're real." Her voice was foggy and hazy, not quite touching reality.

"And I thought you were suppose to be the smart one on the team." He grimaced slightly in pain, that bullet hurt like hell.

"There is no team Cyborg." Then Rachel blinked rapidly twice, reality slamming back into her. Cyborg. Devil of Hell, she looked up from her place on the ground to see the person who had wrestled her gun away. Something was so familiar about him. Shit, "Robin." Her voice was cold and indifferent, as she started at the barrel of what had previously been her gun.

"Raven," He said simply.

"Great," Cyborg interrupted, "now we remember each other's names, and know we aren't figments of the others imagination-"

Rachel interrupted him, "I'm not quite sure Bird Brain here is real or not. If I have the gun back I can set my conscience at ease. Or you two could just leave and I wouldn't have to find out."

Robin just ran a hand through his hair, and looked over at Cyborg who just shrugged, offering him no help. "We need to talk, that's all."

"Talking? Really? Normally you're the guy who's shooting the gun. But now you want to talk, how weird is that?"

"A lot can happen in five years." He snapped, Raven's comment digging under to his never system.

"Yes, so much that you still can't control your temper."

"Like you ever could."

"Right now I see myself doing a Hell of a lot better job than you are. And like you said, a lot can change in five years."

"Like you now have a gun pointed at your heart, which is ready to blow it-"

"Robin!" Cyborg's voice cut through, telling both of his previous team members to stop, even though only one name had been said. "We came here to talk Raven, that's all." Cyborg challenged Robin with his eyes, before turning to Rachel. The two of them locked eyes, neither of them breaking contact or the silence that continued to grow.

Finally though, Cyborg was the one who broke it, "We needed to make sure you were okay."

Raven turned her eyes away from him, looking over at the wall. Her voice shaking slightly as she spoke, "I'm fine, now leave." Hearing no one move she added something else, "Please." Nothing happened. Pushing herself up from the ground she turned to see the two people from what had been her family five years ago. She had been the one to push the team to disbanding. She knew that the others had kept in touch, she just hadn't, and didn't really want too. Why? She wasn't that sure. The tense silence continued to grow, neither quite sure what the other was going to do.

"So," Robin broke the silence this time, "what is Santa getting for your girl?"

Apparently that was the right thing to break the silence, as a small laugh escaped Rachel. "She's not mine. Autumn's her mother. Santa isn't coming for another three months, so he isn't that sure what he's getting her."

"Oh," Robin said simple, before all of them lapsed into another standing silence.

"When did you find out?" Cyborg and Robin looked up at Raven as she spoke.

Cyborg was the one who answered this time, "Today actually. I'm Vic."

Raven nodded, "I thought it was you. Some of the pictures weren't ever given to the public. And you are?"

Robin tugged slightly on his collar, "Richard Grayson."

"Bruce's kid. Heir to the Wayne fortune."

"Legal ward, not kid." Robin corrected.

"What about Nightwing? He you, just like Star said?" A small nod was all Raven got in response. "Well, great talking to you, the door is over there." Rachel pointed over dramatically to the door.

"Okay, but first can you heal the shot that made me 'reality'?" Rachel didn't look at him. Cyborg shook his head, answering his own question, "You can't can you?" The tiniest nod from Raven told him he was right. "Why?"

"I wanted to be able to feel and I can now, so I made the trade, my powers for feeling."

"Didn't killing your father make it possible for you to feel?" Robin spoke up.

"No, he just couldn't come in as a portal and be here is all his demon glory. He could still become a second rate demon in this dimension by possessing me when I get emotional, not just angry."

"I still don't see why you traded it." Robin said. Rachel rounded on him in disbelief.

"Why? You don't know why?" She looked at him with slight disgust. "Lose my powers, become normal, and feel. What seems so hard about the decision? I could feel for about one minute when my father was killing you. It was the purest feeling ever. So powerful, so strong, making me feel complete, invincible. The moment I defeated my father, the moment the world went back to normal. I couldn't feel that anymore. I wasn't whole." She looked over at Robin, willing him to understand, he shook his head, he didn't. "Now though, now I can be happy. I can laugh I can smile, play, sing, dance, with emotion. I can hate. I can be sad. I can yell and I can kill and feel something. I can feel guilty, I can be surprised, I can be embarrassed. I can be afraid. I can envy. I can-," her gaze moved from Robin and to a picture mounted on the wall behind him.

Cyborg followed her gaze to see a picture of Raven, no of a previous Rachel. She was smiling, and had her arm around what could only be her boyfriend in that 'life'. The two were shining with a brightness that Cyborg hadn't seen in her before. It was like she was basking in the glow of the emotion around her, taking it all in, and pouring it out. Pouring out-

"I can love." Rachel said softly, her gaze lingering on the picture for a few more moments before turning away.

"But you can't-"

"Can't do what? I can't kill people accidentally because I'm happy? I can't fling someone across the room with a flick of my wrist? I can't scare the people I love by the fear of me hurting them?"

"You can't save lives. You can't fly. You can't see the minds of your friends. You can't tell when someone is lying to you."

"I don't want to see minds. I don't want to see the pity they hold for me. I don't want to know the deep secretes that someone bears. I don't want to know the truth if it hurts too much." She turned her back on both of them calming herself before she started to speak again, her voice starting out soft but growing with each word, "I want to be normal. I want to have hardships, I want to feel the embarrassment. I want to love someone. I want to feel guilty. I want to hate!" She spun around facing both of them, emotions whipping around in her eyes, changing so quickly from one to the other you couldn't follow them. Then they slowed down, before settling for one. Longing. "You don't know what it would feel like without them. You can't possibly imagine." She turned away once more.

"Raven. . ." Robin reached out a hand to comfort her, but stopped when his phone sounded from on the table where Rachel had made them put their pocket contents. Turning it on he started to talk to whoever was on the other line. "I need to go." Giving a nod to Raven, her back still turned, he headed out the door. She turned toward the door as it slammed shut.

"You missed their wedding you know." Raven faced Cyborg looking questioningly at him. "Star's and Robin's. Two years ago." He saw Rachel stiffen slightly at what he said. "They had a big one for political reasons, with Richard being Bruce's charge and everything. He picked his big money friends to come. So did Star, she just didn't have as many."

"I thought she was on Tamaran."

He shook his head, wincing at the pain of doing just that. "She came back a year after we disbanded. Of course she goes by Kori now. But she really wanted you there, just to see the big wedding. Looked all over. Richard cross referenced everything he could think of for finding you. Pulled up quite a few favors, even got Batman to get some of his contacts looking for you. Almost ever superhero was looking for you. We found you though. Little more than three years ago before this life you made for yourself."

A distance look filled his eye as he continued. "They just wanted you to come for that one. But then you died. Killed in a car crash, smashed by four different cars. Your blood all over the place, and no breathing or anything. Some people you met gave you a small funeral, they had you burned, cremated. We were there, we all saw you burn. Richard even found a witch or someone to make sure no magic was in use. There wasn't. To most of us, we thought this time was for real."

He closed his eyes for a few moments, as if thinking of something else before continuing. " But Star didn't think you were really dead. Tore up most of the place looking for you, even had part of her planet out looking for you in space. No one found you, even though she had more people out looking for you than before, but maybe it was no one was looking as hard, because you were dead to all of us. She looked so hard for you because. . . because they were having a private wedding, so I could be the Best Man, BB could be there, and so could the other titans. She wanted you to be the Maid of Honor. But you weren't there, so you couldn't be. She didn't have one then, a Maid of Honor. No one filled your place there, she just didn't have one. It was an emoty space one that wasn't easy to ignore, but no one questioned it. But everyone noticed. That was two years ago, the private wedding. Put it off a whole year so that you could be the Maid of Honor, but you never were. Year ago she seemed to of finally come to accept the idea that you were really gone."

"Can you just leave, please?"

Taking no heed of her, Cyborg continued talking, "Every time you killed yourself, or staged your death, Robin would feel your bond, just before you 'died'. Every time it was ripped away. He would feel something of you, and then it would be ripped away from him. That one time we found you four times in three months, he almost went insane. It was like you were torturing him. Ripping out parts of his soul. One at a time, not giving him enough time to repair the part you ripped out before doing it again. He was almost put into a mental institution because it was so bad. We found him near death, wrists split open, blood-"

"Stop! Cyborg just stop!" The metal man looked over at Raven, tears rolling silently down her cheeks. "Please." She begged. He didn't say anything, just watched the tears roll down, leaving silver trails on her cheeks. Minutes passed as Raven stood there crying, Cyborg moved to the door, and slipped out, leaving her. Hiccups escaped her mouth as she tried to calm herself down. Sliding to the ground she buried her head in her arms, trying to tell herself that this was all a dream, that she would wake up at any second and find herself in bed.

She woke up to the sound of her door being open. Looking up to see who it was, she saw Autumn. She lowered her head back into her arms. Autumn moved down to sit next to her on the floor. "Hey." Autumn got a mumbled sound in response. "Its ten, and I normally start making the muffins right now." She waited for a response, and got another mumble, which probably meant, I know that. "I need some help tonight, my two workers escaped on some last minute thing."

Rachel finally raised her head from her arms and looked at Autumn with puffy red eyes and dried trails of tears on her cheeks. Giving a small nod she pushed herself up off the ground and started towards the door. Smiling, Autumn gave her a quick hug before pushing her out the door. Their walk to the café was quiet. No one was walking the streets at this time of night. Sometimes in the summer, when it was still light out, people would be strolling along, but not during the dark nights of the fall and winter.

Pushing open the door, Autumn and Rachel went in. Rachel could smell the slow baking of the muffins already. "You didn't need my help did you? You did them all early."

"Kinda." Rachel just looked at her. As Autumn worked on explaining her acts. "I knew that you wouldn't talk about it when you called up. Obviously if you didn't want Jen there it had something to do with your past. And you wouldn't have talked about it, because you would be sitting and moping. So spill."

"It was nothing."

"I find you sitting on the floor, your eyes all red, and tears on your cheeks. You were crying, and the Rachel I know doesn't cry for no reason. There was a thing, person, time, something that set you off, and I need to know what it was, is."

"They found me."

"What, that's it. They found you. Did they talk to you? Or did they roll by in a car and say, 'Hiya Raven! Long time no see since you last died.' What did they say? Was it about how awesome you were, how-"

"I shot him." Rachel said quietly. Autumn stopped talking. Trying to put her thoughts in order.

"You did what?"

"I shot Cyborg."

"What the hell for?"

"I didn't think he was there, I thought he was in my mind."

"So you shot him. Good god Rachel." Closing her eyes Autumn leaned against one of the tables. "You're coming back to work here."

"What do you mean?"

"Vacation time is over. I can't have you running around shooting people because you think they're a dream. Better yet, you're staying at my house for tonight, so I can be sure you're not going to kill someone."

Rachel nodded her head, "So you did all the muffins?"

"Yeah." Together the two walked to Autumn's house. They went into Autumn's room where she grabbed a change of cloths for Rachel. "You know were the shower is. Couch is all yours." Rachel took the cloths and headed towards the shower. The shock of cold water a first woke her up, as the warm water filled her mind. Soothing and pulsing. Throwing on the pajamas Autumn had gotten her, she went over to the couch. Finding that Autumn had pulled it out to make a bed, she had put the sheets on and everything. All she needed was a little chocolate on her pillow. Curling up in the sheets she wrapped her hand around the pendent at the end of her chain as she fell asleep.

"_For luck." _

"_All the luck in the world won't help us now."_

OOooOOooOOooOO

**Okay, a few quick things. Rachel/Raven are the same people (amazing isn't it) and the names will be used interchangably. Sometimes the names don't really matter, I just get tired of using one, but when she is working at the cafe it will be Rachel but when she is around her TT 'friends', Raven. So, yeah. It is also like that with all other previous titans. Another thing, this is something that I really couldn't put into the story, but is something that kind of makes sense, and goes with Raven not knowing their alter ego names (Cyborg is Vic, Robin Richard). The reason she didn't know Cy was Vic, was because whenever they found her they would always say, "Hi Raven, I'm Cy." or something like that, they wouldn't use their alter ego names. Same goes for everyone else. So just little stuff that may or may not set your mind at ease.**

**Smile, Peace, Tears of Trees**


	7. Get a Backbone

**Diclamier: I don't own TT However much I wish I did.**

OOooOOooOOooOO

Rachel woke to Jen shaking her, "Mommy said to get up." Pushing herself up off the pillows, Rachel turned toward the little girl sitting next to her on the bed.

"What are you doing up?" Rubbing her eyes, Rachel looked at Jen.

"Mommy's taking me in today!" Jen let out a small giggle of excitement and bounced up and down on the bed, making it shake under Rachel's still awaking body, making her feel seasick.

"Jen, I need you in here." Autumn's voice was coming from her little girl's bedroom. "Rachel, your cloths are next to the bed." Rachel looked around for the cloths that Autumn mentioned, nor finding them. "Jen might've pushed them off when she woke you up." Autumn said helpfully, some how knowing that Rachel hadn't found them yet. Pushing off the covers, Rachel stood up, and looked all around the bed, then got down on her hands and knees to look for it.

"They're not here Autumn." She said, slightly distressed.

"They've got to be there- Wait, here they are." Autumn came into the room fully clothed, and threw a bundle of cloth at Rachel, "Something nice and pink for you." Rolling her eyes, Rachel headed towards the bathroom, and threw on the cloths, which were not pink she was happy to notice. Heading into the kitchen she saw Jen sitting at the counter eating some cereal, as Autumn watched protectively over her, ever so often taking sips of her coffee. Grabbing a cup from the counter, Rachel filled it with water, normally tea would be preferred, but hey, she'll get some at her café before it opened. Moments after Jen had finished eating; Autumn had bundled her child up in a coat, despite the walk was only a minute or two long, and lifted Jen up into her arms.

Following the two out the door, Rachel closed and locked the door behind them. Even though the walk was only a minute long, the chill was creeping into her bones. When they walked through their café's doors, Rachel welcomed the warmth, as Jen struggled down from her mother's arms, trying to get herself out of the now smothering coat. Flickering on the lights, Autumn went into the kitchens, checking the muffins, pulling out pans some, and changing the position of others. Rachel took the hot pans from Autumn, and moved to the display shelf of the muffins, placing them in their designated spots, as they cooled to perfection.

Jen wandered around the store, moving back to the racks of muffins that Auntie Rachel had just put out, she wanted one of them, just one. Mommy wouldn't mind. Reaching her hand to the closest muffin, Jen started to close her fingers around it, before she heard Auntie Rachel come to a stop behind her. Snatching her hand back, Jen turned a pair of puppy eyes to her. Giving the child a knowing look, Rachel continued to arrange the muffins.

Once all the trays had been pulled out, except for the few that wouldn't be ready till a little later, Autumn started to pull down the chairs off of the tables. The employees came into the warm café, and the smell of fresh baked muffins as the time drew closer to opening time for the day. Rachel moved into the back room, double checking the muffins in the oven, and putting hot water on to boil. When she came out the first customers had already arrived. Moving in between the growing sea of people, she talked and exchanged small pieces of gossip with different people.

"Can you go get Jen, Sarah was keeping a close eye on her for some time, but we're not paying her to baby-sit my girl." Giving a small nod in return to Autumn's asking, she went off to find Jen. When she did find the small girl it wasn't in the hands of the employee, but in a stranger who was playing quite fondly with the little girl. She recognized the man who was standing next to the stranger, Vic, or Cyborg. Her eyes flickering briefly to where she had shot him, nothing was there.

"Jen?" The little girl's red hair bounced around her head as she turned to look at Rachel, her green eyes big. "Who are your new friends?"

"This," she pointed to Vic, who was standing in a protective way over the girl despite not knowing her, "Is Mr. Stone, he was what made you late picking me up." Slowly Rachel closed her eyes, first thing Autumn's baby learns about him, is that he was the reason she was late picking her up from kindergarten. Not something she wanted Jen to know straight away. Opening her eyes, she turned to the stranger. Jen already zooming on ahead to who her other friend was, "This is Mr. Logan, he likes animals, he even says he can be them. But I know that isn't true," She looked up at her Auntie Rachel expectantly. "Right?" Nothing was coming out of Rachel mouth, which was pressed into a firm line. "Auntie Rakel?"

Rachel tore her gaze from the green eyed blonde, to Jen, "Come on, Mommy wants to see you." Grabbing the child's hand firmly in her own, she started to walk away. Giving a small tug when she didn't feel Jen following. The child gave a small smile to the two men, before wiggling her hand out of her Aunt's tight grasped running to Mr. Logan and Mr. Stone giving them both a quick hug. "Jen," Hearing the warning note in her Autn's voice, Jen instantly reattach her hand to Auntie Rachel's and allowed herself to be dragged away from her two new friends.

"Wait!" Mr. Logan's voice called after them. Raven didn't turn around. For all she cared the blonde could go die in a hole. She cut through the crowds, and found Autumn chatting pleasantly with one of the customers.

"How long have you been in this place?"

"We've been in business for about three years now. So do you like it?"

"It is lovely. The place fills me with great happiness. The eating is beautiful." Autumn nodded at the red head. She was so nice to talk to, even if she did talk a little strangely.

"Where did you say you were from?"

The poor dear looked a little flustered at the question, but answered anyway, apparently choosing her words carefully. "From out of country," Autumn just nodded, not convinced. Normally people would at least say the country they were from, even if it was small of something.

"Hey Autumn." Rachel broke into their conversation. Autumn turned to Rachel, raising her eyebrow. Rachel flashed a smile at the person who Autumn had been talking to, "Can you excuse us for a-" Rachel stopped in mid-sentence. There sitting next to the redhead, _redhead, _was Richard Grayson. It didn't take her long to figure out who she was talking to. She closed her eyes, and started to chant in her head, calming herself down, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos, Azarath Metrion Zinthos." She opened her eyes moments later, unnaturally calm. She released Jen from her tight grip, and started to speak again. "You're needed to help at the register. Jen, you go run along and tell Sasha that Rachel told her to watch you." Jen sped off, but Autumn didn't move, but rather folded her arms, ready for an explanation. Raven closed her eyes again, taking deep breaths, "Autumn, don't you remember where the register is?" She took Autumn's arm and tried to drag her away, failing miserably.

Autumn moved closer to Raven, and started to speak low, not allowing the very interested red-head and Richard to over hear, "You're being a baby. Put that backbone that I know you have back in place, and face the past. This is your café, your life, you can kick them out, but to do that, you've got to confront them."

"Autumn." Raven muttered dangerously.

"I know you're trying to clam down, and not get ready to kill them, but believe me, they will keep chasing you until you talk to them."

"I did last night."

"Last night you shot Cy. That isn't a civilized talk."

"Autumn." She slapped Raven. "What was that for?"

"You're muttering like your Raven or someone, you're not." She said disgusted, "You're Rachel Roth, proud owner of Aureus Solis, you best start acting like it. You said you left that life behind, obviously you didn't tell it not to follow you. You don't have mystic creepy powers anymore. You're a normal person, who just happens to have a demon inside of them. Start acting like the girl who owns the shop, not Raven. She might of glared at everyone and been left alone, but you're not anymore. Get that through your thick skull!" Autumn glared at Rachel, leaving her in disbelief, and went off to man the register.

Rachel recovered quickly, devil, she had needed that. Thank you Autumn. Straightening up, she turned to Robin and her other x-teammate. Robin nodded at her, "Rachel." Nodding to him, Rachel beckoned for both of them to follow her. She led them through the tables, and to the book section, finding Cyborg and his green eyed friend. She motioned them onto the chairs, taking a seat herself, legs crossed underneath her, in a comfy position. "Who's ready for story time?"

Autumn watched Rachel fold herself down into her favorite chair, the one she always sat in when it was 'story time.' A small smirk played on her lips, this was the Rachel she knew and, by god, she was glad her friend was back.

OOooOOooOOooOO


	8. Once Upon a Suicide

**Disclaimer: I don't own Teen Titans.**

OOooOOooOOooOO

"Five years ago the Original Five of the Teen Titans split up. They were the leaders of the Titans. Together they held together the whole 'family'. When they left, the whole thing fell apart, even though others were trained to take their place. It wasn't unexpected." She paused to take a breath.

"What? Not going to start with Once Upon a Time?"

Rachel's head pivoted towards Mr. Logan who had spoken, the idiot, she was going to kill him one day, "No, it doesn't, it's more of a Once Upon a Suicide, type of story. Or Once Upon a Dead Body." She flashed him the wickedest smile she could muster up, "Take your pick." He didn't respond. "Or maybe even, Once Upon an Idiot or a Few. Do you want me to start with one of them? Because, as you know, I'm only here to please you."

He spoke up then, "I think Once Upon a Suicide, always loved to know the reasons for people to kill themselves, did they want more attention because they felt that they weren't getting enough, so they killed themselves for the attention."

"Only to please," she replied a smirk still playing on her lips. "Once Upon a Suicide, about nine years ago, a girl named Terra gave herself over to the villain named Slade, it was a suicidal move, and no one, not even the Titans are sure why she did it. Some theories are that she felt under appreciated, because her boyfriend didn't give her enough attention, and that she couldn't just tell him that she didn't love him anymore, so she turned over, it was the easiest way. And to show that she didn't want to lead the same life as him." She smiled. She actually was kind of enjoying the story now.

She watched as the green eyes boy's jaw tightened. Then, "You bitch."

Rachel did a double take, "Excuse me?" Sure she had expected a reaction, but not this one. He had obviously changed much more than she had thought over the years. Well first, she hadn't even expected him to pick one of her 'story starters' so she didn't have a story for any of them. The first thing that had popped into her head had been that. Maybe it had been a little low hit for their first meeting after a couple of years. But, hey, he was the one who decided to come back into her perfect life.

"You heard what I said. You might want to rethink what you just said."

Rachel stood up, and strolled over to where he was sitting, towering over him. "I don't think I need to, her actions where her own, and however it might affect you, that is your problem. Get. Over. It. If you don't want people talking about it, don't give them a reason to."

He rose from his seating position, towering five inches over Rachel's 5ft 6in. "You really didn't know anything about her. You classified the girl as a bitch from the start-"

"I would never classify her and me as the same thing." He talked right over her, like she hadn't even interupted him.

"not even getting to know her. But do you know the facts about why she died in the end?"

"I do know. She decided that she wanted to try and become Terra, Teen Titan again. But that girl was already gone in spirit and soul when she turned. So she did nothing but try and become something she obviously was not, because she tried that before, and it didn't work."

"Well, she saved the city, if you don't remember. She sacrificed herself to keep the people of Jump City from dying. And she got her soul and spirit back right before that, when she decided not to throw a rock at a Titan's throat."

"She was forced. If she hadn't had four other titan's ready to kill her, she would've done it. Survival to her was the only thing that mattered."

"She turned on Slade."

"If she didn't, she would've died. It was all-"

"Auntie Rakel!" All head turned to face the four year old running towards her Aunt. Rachel's face turned from loathing suddenly to happiness. Opening her arms, Rachel picked the child up in a hug. Twirling her around, Jen giggled in excitement. Rachel turned around to her 'customers', appologizing, "I'm sorry, I need to go." She turned her back and started to walk away. Then stopped and turned. _"Obviously you didn't tell it not to follow you." _Autumn had said. Well she still hadn't exactly told them that, yet. She would do it one at a time, not as much yelling might be involved. "Kori, can you come with me, I want to show you something."

Nodding to her husband and her other friends, Kori followed Raven who was weaving through the groups of people. Finding Autumn, Rachel silently handed off the girl. Before picking up the pace, and heading into the back room, Kori still following behind. Putting more kettles on the burners, Rachel heated up some water. She worked in silence for a few minutes, trying to regain her courage, when Kori spoke up. "You know it wasn't nice to start off the way you did. It hurt Gar's feelings."

"I know."

"Don't apologize to me, it is him you need to." The girl had been sarcastic, Rachel hadn't even apologized. She turned to look Kori fully in the face. The girl's eyes were watery. She had been trying not to cry when they had been doing there sparing match. Oh Devil, the girl was upset, she should've known. Wait, Rachel corrected herself, she wasn't suppose to know, she didn't want any part of that life.

"I'm sorry," she said to Kori, "But he deserved it."

"It still was not nice."

"Not everyone in the world is nice. You should know that, being a Wayne now, everyone is out to get you."

"But they are not my friends."

"He isn't my friend anymore Kori. I don't know you or anyone else anymore. I don't want to. I want to lead my life without things from my past coming up."

"Why?"

Raven faltered for words. Why didn't she want them back in her life? She didn't want them back because they knew things about her she didn't want to remember, and having things from her past back in her life would bring the memories back. Or they might tempt her. Tempt her into embracing her powers again, into embracing the demon inside of her. She didn't want that. But she couldn't say that. Those fears were something only she would ever know, they were for her mind only, and no way was she telling Mrs. Grayson that. "I don't know." She finally replied.

They fell silent, employees moving in between the two, to gather up the orders for customers. "I still do not know the whole story."

"No, you don't." She didn't have the courage to tell Starfire. Kori left when it was apparent nothing else was going to be said. Rachel watched her go. She had such a messed up life since she decided to take a week off of work, maybe she really did have family problems, no she corrected herself, just problems. Grabbing an order, she started to fill it.

Kori wandered back to her husband. Tears threatening to over flow. She hadn't expected Raven to welcome them with open arms, but she hadn't thought that would happen. When she found him, he was still in the same place, talking quietly to her friends. He glanced up to see his wife, tears in her eyes. Gathering her up in his arms, he ran his fingers through her hair, claming her down.

Rachel glanced over at where her problem had been only minutes before. It was gone.

The two hours sped by quickly till closing time. The same ritual was done. Everyone shooed out, and the chairs put up, Jen running in and out of their feet, trying to lighten the mood that was settling over her Aunt and Mom. Neither had spoken since the café had closed down for the day. And neither of them did as they both walked out their separate ways. Wrapping her arms around herself, Rachel headed out to Golden Hope. She was back to work at the café, she was going back to work at the shelter. When she entered she went up to Janet.

"Hello Rachel, little early to come back. You still have some days left. How're things with the family going?"

"Everything is great." She choked out, eyes looking every where but at the aging woman. Everything really wasn't sorted out, and her family problems were far from solved considering that they wanted her back in the 'family.'

"Wonderful." Janet said with a smile. Coming out from behind the desk, she grabbed Rachel's hands firmly in her own. "The children will be glad to see you back. I know that family problems come up quickly, but more warning next time would've been nice." Janet searched Rachel's face, something was wrong. "Rachel, look at me." Obediently Rachel met Janet's gaze. Her voice was low and warning, not to be disobeyed, "Whatever is bothering you, hid it. If you want to, tell me, but hid it, and hid it well. Act as you would normally. Too many things could set them off. It is too close to the day. Hid it." Dropping Rachel's hands, she headed back behind the desk, and gave Rachel a cheerful wave.

Rachel smiled back just as she normally would, and headed back, through the double doors at the back. Opening them, she was met with the chattering of children. Glancing quickly around her room, she was glad to be filled with the familiar sights. The hard wood flooring, and multitude of doors heading out into different rooms. Books and toys scattered everywhere in the room. Groups of children playing, running around, reading, or just sitting and talking, were everywhere in the room. Some of them looked up, while others didn't take any notice. Opening her arms wide for the children who were running towards her, Rachel brought them all into a hug. They were all clambering for her attention, wanting to tell her all about their days without her. She listened to all of them as they talked never ending to her. After they had told their stories, the hung on to her for a little longer, listening to the other stories, imputing their own thoughts.

Then, "And he came back, I really didn't think he would ever be back." Rachel twisted quickly to the seven year-old, Samantha, who had spoken, so softly, not meant to be heard.

"Who?" Samantha looked up startled at Rachel. She hadn't expected her to hear, or even say anything, just let it go. All the other kids clustered around Rachel were also staring at the seven year-old.

"Jake, he's back."

"Oh," Rachel said, sad eyes glancing up and scanning the heads for the certain one. She couldn't find it. Maybe it was a different Jake, she didn't think so, but she couldn't find the mop of hair that she knew so well. She dropped her head back to the level of the children surrounding her, eyes hiding what she felt. "So, what else have I missed? Mei," She looked to the little Chinese girl standing next to her, "Your favorite color is still violet isn't it?" She nodded her head, smiling, jumping at the topic starter, telling Rachel all about the nail polish she wanted from Santa. The five dollar kind, with the really pretty violet color, with the really pretty sparkles in it, and that dried really quickly. Rachel smiled at the girl. The other kids quickly jumping into the conversation, telling everyone what they wanted from Santa, and how it was better than anything else you could get.

Smiling, she silently left the conversation, letting the children argue about the best gifts among themselves. Walking over to where the older girls were sitting, and talking among themselves. "Hey," She said softly. They looked up. Soft smiles playing on most of the lips, while one had a straight up scowl. Pushing herself up off the floor that fifteen year-old walked over to Rachel.

"Don't ever do that to us again." She said. A finger jabbed at the accused. They didn't move, just stood in that position for moments, the one glaring at the other. Then, slowly, Rachel nodded, and then enveloped the girl in a hug. Family problems to Aubrey had meant drugs, drunks, and pain, and leaving with the only information that she had family problems wasn't the best idea, especially when the information might be replayed to a few of the children, if only by accident. The other girls rose, enveloping Rachel in one big giant hug. All telling her that they would hunt her down if she ever did that again, promising that it would be very unpleasant once they found her. Settling into their circle, she joined their conversation. First reassuring them that her family problems were done and nothing more was said on the topic. Hours flew by, catching up on all the news that the kids in the beginning hadn't bombarded her with. It finally came time when she needed to head back. Getting her feet, she smiled at each in turn, promising to be back tomorrow.

She headed out the door, eyes constantly scanning the room for the one mop of brown hair. Then, there it was, the boy sitting off on his own, book in hand. He looked up at her gaze, and nodded his head once in recognition, before becoming engrossed in his book again. She let out a sigh of relief, knowing that he was once again safe. Heading out into the front, she gave a smile to Janet, who returned it. Her arms wrapped tightly around her as she walked towards her home, trying to keep in the warmth.

Mr. Grako waved to her from his desk, Rachel giving him a small smile back. Heading up to her room, she opened it, looking around at anything that looked different from the last time she came here. There wasn't. Though her eyes instantly found the things that she had made Vic and Richard pull out of their pockets. Glancing at the clock, reading five. She grabbed her blue sweater, and threw everything of Richard's, which wasn't much, into a bag, then her purse. Heading back out the door, she went to the library, only a few blocks down. Logging onto the computer, she found the address that she needed, and headed off.

It was longer than she wanted, a good forty-five minute walk, located on the outskirts of the city. She did her best not to actually think of what she was doing, knowing that she might lose her will if she did. She was cold by the time she finally got there. Looking up at the house, no mansion, she had arrived at, she smiled. The house was all homely, the colors light and cheerful. Walking up the path, lined with cheery purple flowers, she looked around for signs of security. She saw nothing, and guessed that Vic had done theirs. When she got to the oak door, she rang the doorbell. It was opened seconds later by Mrs. Grayson.

Surprise flickered across her face, as she looked at Rachel standing in her doorway. "Come in." she said, quickly composing herself. Giving her a small smile, Rachel followed her in.

"You're right, you don't know the story, and I would like to share it with you." Kori gave a little squeal of joy. And Rachel quickly added, "Most of it." The squeal wasn't even lowered in volume.

Ushering Rachel in front of her, Kori showed her into the kitchen. Which was just as tactically decorated as the outside of the house. She pulled out a tea kettle and put it on the stove to whistle, and took out five different teas. Turning to Rachel she held them out in front of her, "Which one?" Rachel pointed to good old Earl Grey. Then, sitting down in the chair across from Rachel, she waited patiently for her old friend to speak.

"Okay, you get to ask five questions, about anything you want. Anything, but I have the right not to answer it, if it isn't a) relative or b) to personal." Taking a sip of the steaming tea, Raven waited for Starfire to ask her first question.

"Okay, do you know where Jacob is? And why did you not allow us to adopt him, after your unfortunate accident?"

Raven flinched at the question. When she had been Samantha Mentirion, thinking that they wouldn't find her that time, being a blonde with blue eyes. She had gotten a good job, and had adopted a son a few days later. Jacob, he was eleven, and her Buddy, the nickname she had given him, no one else was allowed to call him that. But they had found her only two months later. Had tried to be there for him, and spoiled him. She had shown great hate for them, so he had to. With no reason except that his mother had hated them. Raven took a sip of tea to wet her dry throat.

"Yes, I know where he is. He's fine, and living a nice life. And he hated you because I hated you. And I couldn't bear for him to be with you, I was selfish, but it wouldn't have been well if he lived with people whom his adopted mother disliked. Next question."

"Did you know where we were, or who we were when you left?"

"No, not really. I had a basic idea. I knew you went off to Tamaran. Cy stayed here to do some technological thing. Robin went to Bruce, so that he could learn to take over the business, and become Nightwing."

"What about Gar?"

"Who?"

"Beastboy, he is Garfield Logan now. His birth name I believe. We call him Gar."

"No, I didn't know anything about what he was doing with his life.

"Do you feel bad about what you said about Terra to Gar?"

"Off topic question."

"What did you do for money during your lives?"

"I went to collage for a while, for a teacher, than tried a policeman when the first one back fired. I wrote some, freelance writing, it was often tight for money. I worked at a bar, it wasn't that bad actually, very nice atmosphere. I was a secretary to this one man, Brain Bucher I believe, worked with sports. That was when Buddy was with me."

"Buddy?"

"I'm sorry, Jacob." Silence. Raven took another sip of her tea, glad to see that it tasted normal, no mustard or funky tasting ingredients in it.

"How did you meet Autumn?"

Raven relaxed slightly, the question was an easy one. "Her mother had her were on bad terms because of her baby Jen. She was finally breaking down under her mother's constant pushing, to put her year old daughter up for adoption. I persuaded her not to."

"How are the muffins made?"

Raven grinned at the question. "It's a secret. But I can tell you that they're slow baked over night."

"You still can't exactly cook can you?"

"Sorry five question limit." She watched as a scowl became apparent on Starfire's face. "Thanks a lot for the tea. I need to be getting back." Pulling out Richard's stuff from her purse she handed it over to Kori.

She took it gratefully, "He could not find where he had placed it, bringing home a gun instead. It is yours?" Rachel nodded. "I do not think you will be getting it back. Nightwing needed another one. And his guns do not usually come back." Smiling, Rachel turned her back on her friend, and started to show herself out. "Oh, and if it helps. Gar came back a year ago from the Amazon." Raven pretended that she had not heard Starfire as she exited the building. A sickening feeling filling the pit of her stomach.

OOooOOooOOooOO


End file.
